Wake up, America! China is Attacking U.S. Power Grid

Adam S. R. Suntactics.com February, 25, 2013

It’s been confirmed that the Chinese government has targeted America’s most fragile operation; the nation’s power grid. An American cyber-security firm, Mandiant, has confirmed in a 60-page report that the most prolific group of computer hackers is indeed the Chinese government. Mandiant published the report on Tuesday describing the Chinese Government’s extensive cyber-espionage campaign that is being waged from a location in Shanghai.

Mandiant is a cyber-security firm based in Virginia and helps companies find and respond to cyber-terrorist threats, they said they followed the group of hackers coming from networks in Shanghai operating from secret divisions in China’s military, who systematically stole hundreds of tetrabytes of information from at least 141 organizations across 20 industries worldwide since 2006.

Experts say that the Chinese are using the information to lay groundwork for future attacks on the U.S. power grid, power plants, chemical factories and air traffic control systems. One of the most critical, yet vulnerable system is the aging U.S. power grid. Without electricity, factories, pipelines, sewage plants, water delivery and the economy would all stop working, things would get ugly very fast. Remember the recent breakdown of the Carnival Cruise liner, people were defacating everywhere because the sewers were backing up, people were hoarding food and water, and people stopped being nice and were acting like savages. This is just a microcosm of what would happen on a nationwide scale.

“This is terrifying because — forget about the country — if someone hired me and told me they wanted to have the offensive capability to take out as many critical systems as possible, I would be going after the vendors and do things like what happened to Telvent,“ “It’s the holy grail.” said Dale Peterson, chief executive of Digital Bond. Industrial control systems like Televent, a company that designs software that gives power grid operators remote access to switches and security systems.

Obama mentioned the concern of cyber terrorism in a State of the Union speech, but not mentioning the Chinese government saying; “We know foreign countries and companies swipe our corporate secrets,” he said. “Now our enemies are also seeking the ability to sabotage our power grid, our financial institutions, our air-traffic control systems. We cannot look back years from now and wonder why we did nothing.”

The potential for cyber war has increased, Mandiant’s analysis of the Chinese government hacking comes just 2 months after the Department of Homeland Security said cyber attacks on critical U.S. infrastructure has increased up to 52% last year. The department fielded reports on 198 attacks, several of which resulted in successful break-ins.

The U.S. government has no interest in publicly calling out the Chinese government about their attacks on the U.S., hands are tied, and many Americans will be unprepared for a nationwide blackout due to the lack of public announcements about the activities of the Chinese government. Now is the time to prepare for a major crisis, when a nationwide blackout occours, societal collapse will be swift and painful especially for those not prepared at all. Having food, water, first aid kit and a reliable source of portable energy is essential just incase the unthinkable happens.

“Right now there is no incentive for the Chinese to stop doing this,” said Mr. Rogers, the House intelligence chairman. “If we don’t create a high price, it’s only going to keep accelerating.”

Read More: 4 Ways to Protect From a Nationwide Blackout